AN ANCHOR FOR THE SOUL: Staying Stable in Unstable Times
Published by: Ambassador 132 pages, ISBN 1-840301-52-x
CONTENTS
Foreword
Preface
Chapter One: An Anchor for the Soul
Chapter Two: Coping with Tragedy
Chapter Three: Tell Jesus
Chapter Four: Stealing: What cannot be Stolen
Chapter Five: The Divine Refiner
Chapter Six: The Seal of the Holy Spirit
Chapter Seven: Tears
Chapter Eight: The Shadow of Thy Wings
Chapter Nine: 9/11
Chapter Ten: ‘His eye is on the Sparrow’
Chapter Eleven: Coping with Illness
Chapter Twelve: DV
Chapter Thirteen: You’re a Saint!
Chapter Fourteen: God’s Pots
Chapter Fifteen: Rejection
Chapter Sixteen: Our Unchanging God
Chapter Seventeen: The Shepherd and His Sheep
Chapter Eighteen: ‘Why don’t you grow down!’
Chapter Nineteen: The Mother Side of God the Father
Chapter Twenty: Hope for the Sorely Troubled
Chapter Twenty One: Bethany: Jesus’ Home from Home
Chapter Twenty Two: ‘Look at the Birds of the Air’
Chapter Twenty Three: En Gedi
Chapter Twenty Four: Salt
Chapter Twenty Five: By Blue Galilee
Chapter Twenty Six: Friends
Chapter Twenty Seven: The God of the Elderly
Chapter Twenty Eight: The Ichthus
Chapter Twenty Nine: Just my Cup of Tea
Chapter Thirty: There’s no place like Home
FOREWORD
Welcome to an uplifting read! I work as a Railway Mission chaplain, which means that I travel on trains frequently. Travelling by train gives me time for preparation and study for whatever awaits me. I was given this book by the author, a good friend, who asked me whether I would be willing to write a brief ‘Foreword’ to it. Having read some of his previous books, I gladly agreed.
Working in the rail industry sees me wearing an identification badge similar to that worn by staff of the major railway company in my area. On seeing my ‘official’ badge, passengers often approach me to help them. Their questions include: ‘What time is my train coming?’ and ‘What platform will it be on?’ Whilst these were not the type of enquiries I expected to receive when I took up my role of Railway Chaplain, I can just about handle them! I know that the ‘Customer Information Screens’ will normally give them all the information they need, and if not, I can direct them to the ‘Enquiry Desk.’
I see this book doing a similar sort of work, except giving you the necessary spiritual information for your life, as you read it chapter by chapter. The guidance offered will help you in every day situations. Like the information screens on the station concourse, here you will find information to help you – but here with spiritual application, to build you up in your faith, and enable you to face the time when maybe you find yourself ‘running late’ spiritually, or, worse still, bordering on a total ‘faith derailment.’
This book, as the title suggests, directs the reader to the Lord Jesus Christ, Who alone is the Anchor for every soul that believes in Him. Full of Christ as it is, in reading it, you will be blessed and encouraged by its contents, built up in your faith and better equipped to travel on your life-journey ahead. Read on!
Rev Ron Keen
Railway Mission Chaplain in Wales
Barry Town Station
Broad Street
BARRY
PREFACE
In times like these, you need the Bible
In times like these, O be not idle
Be very sure, be very sure
Your anchor holds and grips the solid Rock
This Rock is Jesus, yes, He’s the One
This Rock is Jesus, the only One
Be very sure, be very sure
Your anchor holds and grips the solid Rock.
Few would deny that we are living in very unstable times. The chapters which follow were actually compiled before, during and after the war in Iraq with Saddam Hussein. Here in the UK, it was felt that we faced the greatest threat to our national security and well being since the second world war.
Even in so called ‘peace time’ though, personal stability can be something of a rare luxury. We all face many threats to our inner peace and equilibrium. The storms of life – illness, disappointment, tragedy, redundancy etc can strike us so suddenly. Life in this world is no smooth passage and plain sailing. In the midst of our personal storms we may unconsciously sigh: ‘If only we had an anchor for our souls – an anchor which keeps us from ‘going under’ in stormy times …’
The good news is that in the Christ of the Bible we may find the earthly and eternal security, stability and safety we crave. Christian hope in Christ is an anchor of the soul (Hebrews 6:19). Just as an anchor provides stability amidst the storm because it is fixed on a solid object, so the promises of God in Christ are sure and steadfast (Hebrews 6:19), for Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever (Hebrews 13:8).
The following pages direct the reader to the sure and certain promises of God and to the ever blessed Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the Rock of Ages. Yes, life can resemble a merciless, stormy sea. Yes, our souls can feel like a fragile, vulnerable ship. But, praise God, Christian hope is an anchor – anchored firmly to Christ the solid Rock and ‘hidden source of calm repose.’ If you belong to Jesus I know it is well with your soul (3 John 2).
My prayer is that in reading the chapters which follow, you will draw near to Christ and that Christ, in His mercy, will draw near to you. I cannot promise you a trauma free life, but, directing you to the God of the Bible, I can guarantee that He will be the stability of your times (Isaiah 33:6). My hope is that, on completing the thirty chapters which follow you will have been strengthened by God’s grace, and so be able to sing with sincerity and joy:-
In times like these, I have a Saviour
In times like these, I have an anchor
I’m very sure, I’m very sure
My anchor holds and grips the solid Rock
This rock is Jesus, yes He’s the One
This Rock is Jesus, the only One
I’m very sure, I’m very sure
My anchor holds and grips the solid Rock.
Timothy Cross
Barry, South Wales
CHAPTER ONE: AN ANCHOR FOR THE SOUL
The Anchor
Did you know that in the first century – when the Christian Faith was somewhat illicit – the anchor was a popular symbol in the Christian church? The dictionary defines an anchor as ‘a heavy iron appliance with barbed arms for mooring a ship.’ Pictures of anchors have been found carved in early Christian graves, places known as ‘catacombs.’ The anchor symbol speaks of safety and stability. Sailing on the sea has its dangers. This was especially so in the ancient world. When a storm started up and began to rage and howl, even experienced sailors would feel pangs of fear. In such a storm, a vessel would have been in great and grave danger of being shipwrecked, had they not been able to throw out an anchor. The anchor, when lowered, would grip the solid, unseen sea-bed below the surface, and then the ship would be kept safely and stably during the storm, until the danger subsided. Without an anchor, a ship would have been at the total mercy of the elements, and in dire danger of drifting to destruction.
The Anchor for the Soul
In the latter part of Hebrews chapter six in the New Testament, the writer is explaining the Christian hope, that is, the sure promises of God in Jesus Christ. Writing to Christians who lived in unstable times, he says of this hope: We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul . . . (Hebrews 6:19). Whilst a ship’s anchor is anchored downward however, the Christian’s anchor is actually anchored upward, for the same verse in full states: We have this (hope) as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner shrine behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf . . . (Hebrews 6:19,20).
The Storms of Life and the Christian Answer
Which one of us does not sometimes feel tossed about on the stormy sea of life? Which one of us has not been made to feel our frailty and vulnerability? Our health, finances, circumstances and even our friends can seem so uncertain. No one appreciates those sudden, unexpected changes of circumstances which bring worry and apprehension. All this being so, how good it is to know Jesus as our sure and steadfast anchor of the soul. No earthly anchor is able or capable of giving us the earthly and eternal security which God in Christ alone can give. Notice that the Christian anchor is described as both sure and steadfast. As a sure anchor it cannot break or be disturbed or ruffled by outward circumstances. As a steadfast anchor it is reliable, trustworthy and wholly dependable. Jesus will hold us fast, and Jesus will never fail us.
Christ, the Solid Rock
If our stormy lives are the sea, and if our feeble souls are storm tossed boats upon the sea, then Hope is the anchor of the soul when it grips the solid rock of Christ Jesus. He is the hidden rock ‘within the veil’. He is the One Who died for our sins to procure our eternal salvation. He is the One Who rose from the grave and ascended into heaven and now continually intercedes for His Own at the right hand of God. Read and heed the following, written by a famous Bible commentator:-
Gospel hope is our anchor . . . In our stormy passage through this world . . . It is sure and steadfast, or else it could not keep us so. It is sure in its own nature for it is the special work of God in the soul . . . It is steadfast as it is an anchor that is cast upon the rock, the Rock of Ages. It does not seek to fasten upon the sands, but enters within the veil and fixes there upon Christ; He is the object, He is the anchor hold of the believer’s hope . . .
So the big question is, at the very outset: Are you anchored to the Lord Jesus Christ? Are you trusting in the free grace of God in Christ to save your soul? Are you anchored to the finished Work of Christ on Calvary’s cross for your eternal salvation? Have you come to an end of yourself and have you cast yourself wholly upon Christ – His merits and mediation – to bring you safely and surely to the safe haven of heaven itself, where the storms of this life will be gone for evermore? Christ is the Christian’s anchor. What is yours?:-
Will your anchor hold in the storms of life
When the clouds unfold their wings of strife?
When the strong tides lift and the cables strain
Will your anchor drift or firm remain?
Will your anchor hold in the straits of fear
When the breakers roar and the reef is near?
While the surgers rave and the wild winds blow
Shall the angry waves then your bark o’er flow?
Will your anchor hold in the floods of death
When the waters cold chill your latest breath?
On the rising tide you can never fail
While your anchor holds within the veil
We have an anchor that keeps the soul
Steadfast and sure while the billows roll
Fastened to the rock which cannot move
Grounded firm and deep in the Saviour’s love!
